Coalition Management under Divided/Unified Multipary Presidentialism

This paper challenges and re-conceptualizes the classic definition of divided/unified government when it is applied to multi-party presidential regimes. In this kind of institutional environment, the minority condition of the president’s party in Congress is the norm. Building and managing coalition governments, therefore, has been the primary choice of presidents in order to govern. We propose a substantive interpretation of the concept of divided/unified government based on the ideological congruence between the governing coalition and the floor of the Congress. In contrast with the conventional ’arithmetic definition’ of divided government, we argue that the ideological distance between the floor and the coalition is the main factor that explains legislative success of presidents, cost of governing, coalition breakdowns, chance of impeachments and the degree of activism and effectiveness of legislative oversight mechanisms of presidents in Latin America.